If you have passed through the intersection of Granville Street and Robson Street in the heart of downtown Vancouver in recent weeks, you may have noticed crews performing some minor construction work on the sidewalks, road surfaces, and traffic signals.
This is for the upcoming pilot project to transform the highly prominent intersection with significant foot traffic volumes into a six-way pedestrian scramble, following Vancouver City Council’s direction to pursue such a pilot project last fall.
City staff told Daily Hive Urbanized that they are currently in the process of implementing the pedestrian scramble, and expect to launch the new traffic pattern in July 2024. More details and a specific date will be made available at a later date.
At an intersection with a pedestrian scramble, pedestrians can cross the street not only horizontally but also diagonally. There are diagonal pedestrian crossing markings on the road surface of the intersection in addition to the horizontal crossings, which are now in the process of being installed.
Changes to the intersection’s traffic signals create a new pattern when all traffic lights turn red to stop all vehicle traffic, enabling pedestrians to cross in all six ways.
Installation work on the pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Granville and Robson streets, as of June 25, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Installation work on the pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Granville and Robson streets, as of June 25, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
“I am excited to see the new scramble crossing move forward at this iconic downtown intersection. It will improve safety and increase convenience for pedestrians,” Vancouver city councillor Peter Meiszner told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“This is one of the actions we are taking as an ABC council to elevate the pedestrian experience in downtown Vancouver — with this initiative and the pedestrian-first pilot launching later this week — we’ve got two new initiatives to create more public spaces and places for Vancouverites this summer.”
Up to $500,000 from the provincial government’s Growing Community Fund allocation of $26 million to the City of Vancouver was originally set aside for this pedestrian scramble pilot project, but City staff later lowered the cost to between $100,000 and $200,000 from the advantages of choosing the location of the intersection of Granville and Robson streets, which enables a lower cost from the ability to upgrade existing newer traffic signal equipment.
As well, this intersection was selected for its relatively low vehicle traffic volumes, with Granville Street through the area being a bus-only roadway.
The iconic Shibuya Crossing intersection in Tokyo with its pedestrian scramble. (Sean Pavone/Shutterstock)
The pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets in downtown Toronto. (Shawn Goldberg/Shutterstock)
A pedestrian scramble was previously found at the nearby intersection of Granville Street and West Hastings Street between 1953 and 1970.
Some of the world’s most well-known pedestrian scrambles are at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Oxford Circus in London, and Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto. More locally, since 2011, there has been a pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Moncton Street and No. 1 Road at Steveston Village in Richmond.
Pedestrian scrambles are different from an all-walk intersection, such as the intersection of Robson Street and Hornby Street, which has a signal pattern that enables pedestrians to cross horizontally, not diagonally.